Obama to Be ‘Personally Insulted’ If Black Voters Don’t Stop Trump

President Barack Obama on Saturday, addressing a Congressional Black Caucus gala for the last time as President, urged the African-American community to help stop Donald Trump. In his hardest pitch yet for erstwhile rival Hillary Clinton, he said he would consider it a “personal insult” to his legacy if black voters did not back the Democratic frontrunner.

“If I hear anybody saying their vote does not matter, that it doesn’t matter who we elect – read up on your history. It matters. We’ve got to get people to vote,” Obama said.

I will consider it a personal insult – an insult to my legacy – if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You want to give me a good send-off? Go vote.

Obama

President Obama pats two young girls on the head as he greets guests after speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual Legislative Conference Phoenix Awards Dinner, 17 September 2016, Washington. (Photo: AP)

The President delivered a stern warning, stressing that though his name would not be on the ballot in the upcoming November election, all of the progress the country had made during his presidency over the last 8 years was on the line, CNN reported.

Obama referred to Trump as “somebody who has fought against civil rights and fought against equality and who has shown no regard for working people most of his life,” in a likely reference to the racial discrimination case filed Trump’s real estate company in the 1970s, among other race-related controversies.

During his address, he also mocked the “birther” controversy (which claimed that Obama was born in Kenya, and was therefore ineligible for the Presidency during his 2008 election campaign) – that Trump had finally recently admitted was illegitimate, despite having been a prominent proponent.